Eyes Wide Open
by EchoInTheSilence
Summary: After more than two decades, a disappeared serial killer reemerges, and the SVU detectives must look outside their own team to find the one man whose knowledge may be key to stopping him. But secrets kept during the original investigation have a lot more potential for harm than anyone could have guessed.
1. The Expert's Mind

**Eyes Wide Open**

**Disclaimer: **If you recognize it, it's not mine. This story is on an AU track.

**This story is rated T for mention of rape and torture, and the entire story carries a trigger warning. Don't like it, don't read it.**

**This story is fourth in the series beginning with ****_Close to Home._**** You don't need to have read the earlier stories to understand this one, but there may be references and spoilers.**

**Chapter 1: The Expert's Mind**

"Brace yourselves," the officer warned Benson and Amaro. "This one's rough."

"It was called in as a rape-homicide," Benson said as they slipped under the crime scene tape. "Has that been confirmed?"

"Semen in the vaginal canal," the officer affirmed. "And there's a lot of damage. I know there have been cases where a woman had consensual sex and then was murdered, but this doesn't look like that."

"Oh." Amaro had reached the body first and he couldn't stop himself recoiling. "Rough doesn't begin to cover this."

"We got an ID on the victim?" Benson pressed, just barely suppressing her own reaction as she got her first look at the victim.

"Lisa Moore, twenty-five. My partner's already working on next of kin."

Olivia smiled a little despite the gravity of the situation, nodding at the young officer. It was always nice when they got ahead of the game. "Nice initiative."

He reddened a little. "Thanks."

"Liv, look at this." He had one of the victim's hands in his and was turning it over, examining the wrists.

Olivia examined the marks. "She was tied up."

"That's what I was thinking. And wow, someone had a lot of anger."

Olivia nodded. "Let's see what Warner has to say."

xxxxxxxxx

"COD is multiple stab wounds," Warner reported, "and I'm with the officer on scene. She was raped. Brutally." The ME gently turned her head. "Single injury to the back of the head, about seven or eight hours pre-mortem, probably to incapacitate the victim."

"So he held onto her for seven or eight hours?" Amaro asked.

"Not just held onto her," Warner said grimly. "She was tortured. Most of these injuries are non-fatal, and judging by the amount of clotting, were inflicted over the course of several hours."

"Anything that might help us catch this guy?" Olivia asked.

"Other than the semen, which I already sent to the lab for DNA testing, there's just one thing. No hesitation marks, nothing to suggest he was uncertain in his use of force. Whoever your perp is, I'd be willing to bet he's killed before."

"So we run the MO through the system, maybe get a match," Amaro finished. "Thanks."

Oh, and one more thing. She was covered in Pierre LeRitz."

"In what?" Amaro asked.

"A lotion," Olivia explained, "and not one a young woman would be likely to use. Maybe it was on the killer."

xxxxxxxxx

"This is one of those good-news, bad-news situations," the lab tech reported. "Good news, your guy's DNA is in the system."

"That's great news," Amaro replied. "Who is he?"

"That's the bad news," the tech said, shaking her head. "We don't know." She handed Amaro the file. "The DNA from the semen left in Lisa Moore traces back to twelve unsolved rape-homicides between 1987 and 1992."

"A serial killer," Olivia said grimly.

Amaro was scanning the file. "Matches the MO too, down to the detail. Thanks," he said to the lab tech before turning to his partner. "So that's one question answered and something like a dozen more raised. I'll call the squad room, have them pull the full file."

xxxxxxxxx

"Your serial killer, the one who called himself Sebastian," Rollins reported, "he was active in both Pennsylvania and Maryland, so the FBI was handling it. I got the condensed version, but it's going to take some finagling to get the full case file from them; Murphy's working on it. In the meantime, I thought it might be worth tracking down a couple of the agents who originally worked on the case."

"Good thinking. So, what do you have?" Olivia prompted.

"Well, the lead on the case was an Agent John Kelvin; he died four years ago. But they also had a criminal profiler they called in as a consultant, a Dr. Declan Gage. From what I could gather, he worked this case nonstop, night and day."

"Where is he now?" she pressed.

Rollins winced a little. "LaGuardia Psychiatric in the secure ward. According the case file, he confessed to soliciting serial killer Nicole Wallace to kill a man and then murdering Wallace. The DA gave him a plea bargain - he agreed to life without parole in return for being allowed to serve his sentence in a secure hospital instead of a prison."

"So is he sane enough to talk to us?" Amaro asked.

"I don't know," Rollins replied, "but from what I read, he was really invested in this case - too invested, if anything. He went public with the case, _without _asking his FBI team."

Olivia winced. "Sounds like a bit of a loose canon. So what happened?"

"The opposite of what he intended. As near as anyone could tell, he was trying to flush Sebastian out. Instead, the additional media attention just drove Sebastian underground. He stopped killing, but they also lost pretty much any hope of catching him. Gage had a major meltdown he never fully recovered from; the consensus seems to be that that was the beginning of the end for him, even though he wouldn't actually commit murder for another sixteen years. If there's anything he's going to remember, even after losing his mind, I'd think it would be this case."

"Well," Olivia said wryly, "I guess this means Amaro and I are taking a field trip."

xxxxxxxxx

"Doctor Gage, I'm Detective Benson, this is Detective Amaro."

"Detectives, huh? I trained a detective once. Good man. Too emotional, though. Trouble with objectivity."

"I'm sure," Olivia interrupted, sensing she would be subject to an extended monologue if she didn't cut Gage off at the pass. "But that's not why we're here. We want to talk to you about a case you worked. A serial killer called Sebastian."

Just like that, they had Gage's instant and total attention. "Sebastian? Has he resurfaced?"

The detectives shared a look, silently agreeing to go ahead and tell him. "We think so," Amaro replied.

"You're sure it's not a copycat? Some of them can get pretty damned clever. One of them fooled even me..."

"We have a DNA match," Benson said, interrupting him again. "If this is a copycat, he or she is doing a hell of a job."

But Gage didn't appear to be listening anymore. "If only that case had been real. Bobby would have redeemed me, I know he would have. But it was only Joe. And such a good copy it was, right down to the Pierre LaRitz. Joe tricked me and Bobby - Bobby figured it out. If it had been Sebastian, he would have solved it and redeemed me..."

The detectives shared another glance. _We're getting nowhere with this guy._ Olivia stood. "Thank you for your time, Dr. Gage."

Amaro stood too and followed her out, waiting until they were out of the building before voicing his own opinion. "Well, that was a massive waste of time."

Olivia bit her lip, thinking. "Maybe not. Let's assume for a moment that Gage knows what he's talking about, even if we don't and even if he's all over the place trying to explain." She paused for a moment. "You know those copycat cases Gage mentioned? We need to look over all of those files." She pulled her phone from her pocket and dialed the squad number.

"_Special Victims, Detective Rollins._"

"It's Olivia," she told the other detective. "I need you to pull the files on any Sebastian copycats you can find, and you and Fin start going through them. Start with closed cases."

"_Sure. What are we looking for?_"

"A file involving a perp who goes by the name Joe. Once you find any matching files, go through them and find anyone connected to one of the cases named Bobby, or anything that could logically be shortened to Bobby. Amaro and I will join you when we get back, and I'll explain everything."

"_Copy that. I'm on it._"

xxxxxxxxx

"Any luck?" Amaro asked as they walked into the bullpen.

Fin shook his head. "We've got two Josephs who committed Sebastian copycat crimes - you wouldn't believe how many of those there are - but no Bobby connected to either case. I called the detectives on both crimes, but none of them remember a Bobby having anything to do with those cases. Rollins is still going through the files."

The blonde looked up from her computer. "So, what's this all about?"

"Gage remembers the case, but he started rambling off on a tangent and wasn't listening to our questions," Olivia explained. "But he did mention a copycat case committed by a 'Joe' and a 'Bobby' who was involved in solving it. He said that if it had been Sebastian, Bobby would've solved it, which makes me think that whoever Bobby is, Gage might've told him more about Sebastian than he told the general public. He might be able to give us what we were trying to get from Gage."

Rollins, who had gone back to scanning her computer screen as she listened, suddenly sat up straight. "This Joe - did Gage say it was a man?"

"I don't think so," Amaro said, and Olivia shook her head in agreement. "Why?"

"Because I think I have something. There was a Sebastian copycat case here in New York City 2006 that was traced back to a Jo Gage."

"Related to Dr. Gage?" Fin asked.

"If I had to guess. It doesn't say. But there's more," Rollins added. "The officers who filed the report? Captain Daniel Ross andDetective First Grade Robert Goren."

"That could be Gage's Bobby," Olivia said half to herself. "If he's NYPD, we should be able to reach him."

"Hang on a second." Rollins quickly ran another search. "Okay, Detective Goren retired in 2011, so he's not in the active database. But he is drawing a pension."

"Meaning someone in personnel will have his address," Olivia finished. "Good work. I'll make the call."

xxxxxxxxx

Olivia couldn't help rubbing her eyes as she and Amaro stepped off the elevator. There had been no one home at the address personnel had provided, and so she had left a business card in his door with a note for him to contact her as soon as possible.

They'd been detoured on their way back by a call from Barba regarding a recently-closed case that was about to go to trial, and since they didn't have anything they could chase down on the Sebastian case, they'd agreed to head down to his office and go over their respective testimonies. As a result, it was almost three hours later than when they had left.

Rollins came hurrying down the hallway to intercept them. "Hey, Liv. There's, um, a rather large man here who specifically wants to talk to you. He's sitting at your desk. Just thought I'd give you a heads-up."

"Thanks. I appreciate it."

Olivia's eyes were drawn to the man sitting at her desk as soon as he was within her line of sight. Rollins hadn't been exaggerating to call him a 'rather large man'. He wasn't especially heavyset; he was just _big_. Even sitting down, she could tell he was well over six feet tall and large-framed.

He seemed to sense her gaze and looked up as she approached. She smiled at him, trying to be reassuring. "I'm Sergeant Benson, can I help you?"

"That's what I wanted to ask you." He stood, extending a large, long-fingered hand, and Olivia realized she hadn't been overestimating his height at all. "Bobby Goren. You left me your card?"

****Yes, this is a crossover. I loved Eames' guest appearances on SVU Season 14 and although I brought her in briefly in ******_**Within Me, Without You**_******, I wanted to do more, namely, create a situation for both her and Goren to interact with the SVU team within the context of a case.****

****Sebastian comes from the Law and Order: CI episode ******_**Blind Spot**_******, as does Dr. Declan Gage. Gage's crimes come from the episode ******_**Frame**_******.****

****Please review!****


	2. The Expert's Legacy

**Eyes Wide Open**

**Disclaimer: **If you recognize it, it's not mine. This story is on an AU track.

**Chapter 2: The Expert's Legacy**

"Most people would just pick up the phone."

The big man smiled. "I know. But I wasn't doing anything, and I admit I was curious. I hadn't heard anything about a crime in the building or the area, and I didn't see cards in any of my neighbors' doors. In other words, this wasn't a canvass for witnesses. you were looking specifically for me."

Olivia couldn't help but smile back. "Sit down, and I'll explain." She sat in her chair, and he took another chair facing her. "You're familiar with Dr. Declan Gage?"

Goren's face hardened a little at the name. "I was. I haven't spoken to him for the better part of a decade, and I have no intention of changing that fact."

"Understood," Olivia said quickly, "but this concerns something he might have told you before that. His work on the Sebastian case?"

There was no denying he reacted to that. A flash of recognition, a flinch suggesting the name was associated with an unpleasant memory. "His white whale case. It wasn't the only case he ever had that went cold, but it was the only one he couldn't let go of." She saw realization flash across his face. "You have a case you think is Sebastian?"

"We're almost positive," she told him after a moment's hesitation. It wasn't like she could hide that from him once she started asking more questions. "We not only matched the MO, we matched the DNA on the body."

His eyes widened. "Wow. Just like that, after twenty years?"

"Looks that way."

"So why come to me?"

"We went to Dr. Gage first, but he wasn't making a lot of sense and wasn't responsive to our questions."

Goren nodded sadly. "Permanent, irreversible brain damage, that's what the experts said. And he was never entirely connected to the rest of the world to begin with. So, how did you find me?"

"He sort of pointed us in your direction."

"Sort of? Let me guess. Dropped some sort of obscure hint as if you knew exactly what he was talking about despite having zero context and you spent an hour or more chasing it down to me?" He gave a soft laugh at Olivia's shocked look. "There was a time Declan and I were close, I know how he is. If you don't mind my asking, what was the hint?"

"He mentioned your first name - Bobby - in connection with a Sebastian copycat case involving someone named Jo, and said something to suggest that the 'Bobby' in question was familiar with the original. We went through all the files on Sebastian copycats and found your name on an arrest report."

"Jo Gage," he said knowingly. "Declan's daughter. I took her confession."

"From there, all I had to do was call personnel for the address. And so, here we are."

"And you want information on Sebastian."

"Anything you can tell us. Ideally, I'd like you to have a look at the file and fill in any blanks you notice. I don't want to take up a ton of your time -"

"I don't mind, really. I did this kind of work for a long time, and I enjoyed it." He took the file from her and began to scan it. "In fact, I still do some consulting work from time to time."

"For the NYPD?" Olivia asked hopefully.

"And the FBI, and the DA's office once in a while," he said a little distractedly. Then he seemed to catch up to what Olivia was asking. "You want me to work this case?"

"If you'd be willing. I'm not trying to pull you away from another jobs -"

"I'm between assignments right now," Goren replied, "and I'm perfectly willing. I'm just not - my usual experience in consulting for NYPD is that the Brass or some captain asks for my help and the primaries on the case are very grudging about the situation. There have been exceptions, I still have friends in the department, but most cops seem to think that my leaving was the best thing that happened to the NYPD in a long time."

"What happened, if you don't mind telling me?"

He shrugged. "Well, I was never all that popular to begin with. My methods weren't exactly standard, and a lot of people didn't know what to make of it. If you knew how many partners I went through before I found one who stuck with me - anyway, it really got bad when I managed to do the near-impossible and cross both the Brass and the good-old-boy cops simultaneously."

"Dare I ask how?"

"A cop got shot, and his partner IDed a guy they'd been trying to bust - they were protecting a witness, the surviving partner was on a bathroom break. Something about the partner's story seemed off to me, so I pushed it a little further. Turned out his bathroom break was a break to screw his girlfriend in a car up the block, and his ID was made up to cover the fact that he was partially blind. But yeah, if there's a way to get both those groups angry at the same time, that would be it."

"But the ID really wasn't valid?"

"Not even close. He IDed an Asian gang member in his thirties. The actual doer was a seventeen-year-old Hispanic kid whose father had gone to prison for murdering a cop based on another questionable ID, this one from the officer the kid murdered - I cleared that one too," he added so offhandedly Olivia had to wonder if he even realized he was bragging. "But everyone seemed to get stuck on what happened with the original suspect, and then it just went downhill from there. I got fired, and then asked back by a Captain who thought I got a raw deal - he was a good guy, but the whole situation was awkward and uncomfortable to say the least. I had well over my twenty years by then, so I put in my papers, told them I'd be willing to consult if they wanted me, and left."

Olivia didn't know if she was more surprised by the story itself or the fact that this man had been willing to tell that story to a virtual stranger whose reactions he'd have had no way to anticipate. "Well," she said finally, "I don't see any reason to have a problem with you. If the guys you pissed off had gotten their way, there'd be a cop killer walking free and an innocent man in prison."

He smiled. "Okay, then. Give me the paperwork."

xxxxxxxxx

"Who on Earth gave you this? I don't think I've ever seen a file this sparse on the details."

Olivia had gone to speak with Murphy while Goren took a look at the file, and she'd been shocked to discover that the squad Lieutenant harbored a trace of the attitude the former detective had expected from her. Fortunately, the ideas didn't seem to have been entrenched, and Olivia had been able to persuade him that they needed to take advantage of Goren's expertise and familiarity with the case. She'd come back to find him still studying the file intensely.

"FBI got territorial," she told him. "That's all they handed over. You said you've consulted for them; any chance you might have some hooks that would help us get the complete file? Our Lieutenant's been pushing at it all day and nothing's changing."

He sat in silence for a moment, clearly deep in thought. "I don't know about people I've worked with in consulting, but there is someone, a former colleague of mine who's with the FBI - she's been bounced between them and NYPD a lot. In any case, she was just recently transferred to work with someone I'm still close with. I can make a call and that might give me a way in."

"Make the call," Olivia said quickly. "If we can get that file, it might really help."

"The only thing is, I'd probably end up having to explain what's going on. I understand wanting to keep it internal, to prevent a panic, but I can't - I can't lie to her, to either of them really. I never could. I promise she's not the kind of person who'd leak a case file."

One look at Goren's eyes was all Olivia needed to know he was sincere. He fully knew that his connection, whoever she was, would not leak the file. "Okay."

xxxxxxxxx

"Barek's working on that file for me," Goren told Olivia. "One way or another, we ought to have it soon enough."

"I've filled the others in that you're working with us," Olivia replied. "There are only five of us including Lieutenant Murphy. I think you know Detective Tutuola -"

"Yes, we were in Narcotics at the same time." He shook the other man's hand warmly.

"And this is Detective Amaro, and Detective Rollins."

Goren shook each of their hands, and then Olivia called the focus back to the case. "So right off the top, what can you tell us that isn't in the version of the file we have?"

"Well, most of the basic details are here - the MO, the names of his victims, the dates and locations of each murder. What isn't in here is a lot of the more subjective work, like what Gage was contracted to do. His profile isn't in the file."

"Do you know it?" Amaro asked hopefully.

"Not word-for-word, but the general sense of it. The most notable thing is that Gage believed Sebastian was toying with him - not with the cops in general, but with _him_ in particular. Now, some of that might have been Dec having a persecution complex, but if he's right on any level, that tells us something. It isn't unheard of for serial killers to personalize their relationships with the cops hunting them - I dealt with one myself who did, and let me tell you it's _not_ pleasant - it's not common either."

"So what does that mean?" Rollins pressed.

Goren bit his lip, thinking hard. "Profiling is as much an art as a science, but I'd say it means he gets as much pleasure out of the hunt as he does out of the murders themselves. Nicole did," he added half to himself. "Killers like that take pleasure in the fact that so many people are putting in so much effort to find them, and even more so if they can pick an individual to mess with. If Sebastian did toy with Dec, I'd have to say he enjoyed the fact that he could get under the skin of a professional and throw his head out of whack. Gage's meltdown would have been the ultimate victory for him." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I wish I had his notes. Hopefully, they'll come with the file."

"You think they'll be coherent?" Amaro asked skeptically.

"I know how he thinks - how he thought, anyway, before the brain damage, and honestly I'm not so sure he's different now, he just lost any impulse control he had. In any case, I can follow his trains of thought for the most part, even if they seem nonsensical. I have his abridged notes on Sebastian from the Jo Gage case, I'll share them, but I couldn't help but get the sense that there was something he, ah, _abridged_ out."

"What?" Olivia asked.

Goren shrugged. "I have no idea. I feel like the answer is in the Jo Gage case somewhere, but I've been over and over it in my head, and I can't put my finger on it."

"Why Jo Gage?" Rollins asked, confused. "She couldn't have been the real thing."

"But she was good enough to convince her father that she was. Profilers are usually the first people to make a crime as a copycat, because they spend so much time analyzing and trying to get into the killer's head. I know the Pierre LaRitz was part of it, but there had to be something more..." He sighed, rubbing his neck again. "I'll figure it out eventually. If Sebastian's original timeline holds, we have five months before we get another victim."

"That's good, anyway," Olivia commented. "I'm not saying we can afford to relax, but if you knew how many times we worked on countdowns of a matter of days..."

"I've done it more than a few times myself," Goren replied. "Believe me, I get it."

"Look," Murphy added from the doorway, "it's already quitting time, and I don't see anything we can do right now, not without those files. Why don't you guys go home, look at it with fresh eyes in the morning."

The detectives nodded their assent, all starting to get up and gather their things. Fin and Rollins spoke quietly, and then the blonde turned to her colleagues at the next desk. "Fin and I are going to grab a drink. Any of you guys want to come?" She looked from them to the tall man next to Olivia. "Goren, you're welcome too."

"Appreciate it," Olivia said, "but honestly, I just want to get home."

"Don't you know?" Fin added, teasing. "She's _married_ now. Has to get home to the family."

She blushed a little but laughed too. "It's been two months, are you guys ever going to let that slide?"

"Not as long as you keep acting like a newlywed," Rollins teased. "Nick? Goren? You in?"

"I am," Amaro said, giving the blonde a smile. Fin and Olivia exchanged a knowing smile of their own. Rollins and Amaro's relationship wasn't exactly a secret.

"Sorry, I can't either," Goren replied. "I need to check up on a friend. But I appreciate you asking, I really do. Maybe next time?"

"Damn, man," Fin said lightly, "you're making me the third wheel here."

"Shut up, Fin," Rollins said lightly, slapping him on the arm. "Come on, let's go."

xxxxxxxxx

Goren was less than surprised to see a light coming from under his apartment door. He was even less surprised by the blonde woman who was curled up in his large armchair, apparently asleep. He stood there for a moment, just looking. _God, she's so beautiful._

She turned her head, letting out a small whimper in her sleep, and he was instantly at her side, running his long fingers through her hair. "Shh, shh, it's okay now. I'm here."

Her head jerked and her eyes fluttered open. "Oh, hey." She straightened up a bit. "I didn't mean to fall asleep."

"It's okay. If you fall asleep while you're just sitting there, it probably means you needed it. Besides," he added, smiling, "I like watching you sleep. How are you doing?"

"I'm -" his deep, intense gaze stopped her from saying _okay_. "I'm a little shaky," she admitted. "I hate this so much. She's as good as dead; why does she still get to affect me like this?"

"Come here." He opened his arms and she fell into them; he cradled her close. "Oh, Alex, I'm so sorry I had to get you involved."

"No, I know why you did it," she replied, resting her head on his shoulder, letting his warm embrace make her feel safe. "You need that file, and Carolyn's your best hope of getting it, and now that she's working with me, I'm your obvious link to her. If that information can save a life, it's worth all this."

"I just wish there had been a better option." He carefully gathered her little frame up in his arms and slid into the chair, still holding her close. "I'm still so sorry I let that happen to you."

"It's not your fault," she whispered into his ear. "You know, Logan and Ross told me all about your interrogation of Gage. The second it looked like he might be responsible, you turned on him, you were ready to stop at nothing to get the truth out of him. I can't think how many people in your position would have insisted it couldn't have been him, he'd never do such a thing."

He ran his fingers through her hair, cradling her head to his shoulder. "Even then, you mattered more to me than he did. And now...now you mean even more."

"Remind me why it took us so long to get here?" she asked with a small laugh. "You and me, together - I think everyone in the world saw this happening before the idea crossed either of our minds."

"I'm glad we never became more than friends when we were working together," he admitted. "You know they would have split us up if we had, and after having you as a partner, I doubt my working with anyone else would've gone well. Just ask Bishop." He smiled, and his heart was warmed by the smile she gave him in response.

"Agreed," she whispered back. "I'm just sorry it took us so long to get here after you retired and I transferred."

"I guess by then, we'd gotten so used to denying our feelings that we'd started believing it ourselves." He kissed the top of her head. "When you called me two months ago and asked to have dinner, I barely dared to hope...I was on the verge of convincing myself that I was misreading your intentions through the lens of everything I wanted, that it wasn't _really_ a date."

"Bet that illusion disappeared within the first five minutes of that dinner."

"You always did hate beating around the bush." He smiled into her hair. "But even so, just saying out of the blue that you had just come from the wedding of two cops who used to be partners when you called me and that you called because you thought we should give it a try...well, that's pretty blunt, even for you."

"Are you sorry that I did it?"

"Not in the slightest." He brushed her hair back, tipped her chin up, and gently kissed her. "This - this is something I stopped letting myself hope for for so long."

"Can I - can I stay the night?" she asked softly. "I'm afraid...nightmares."

"Of course." He bent forward, kissing the top of her head. "You're always welcome here, don't you know that?"

**So yeah, they're a couple now. No prizes for guessing whose wedding Alex was at that gave her the idea!**

**I got a couple of anonymous reviews on the same topic, so I'm just going to address them here. I don't update on any sort of schedule, but an update every 2-3 weeks is fairly standard (maybe a little more frequent if I'm on a roll). For people who are primarily Criminal Intent fans (or, like me, fans of both), I suggest you check out my straight Criminal Intent story **_**A New Reality.**_

**This chapter references the CI episodes **_**Blind Spot**_** and **_**Amends**_**.**

**Please review.**


	3. Brothers and Sisters In Blue

**Eyes Wide Open**

**Disclaimer: **If you recognize it, it's not mine. This story is on an AU track.

**Chapter 3: Brothers and Sisters In Blue  
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"Must be nice being a consultant," Fin teased. "No paperwork, and you get to come in whenever you feel like it."

Goren didn't laugh. "I'd meant to be in an hour ago," he said, clearly frustrated that this hadn't come to be. "But my girlfriend wasn't feeling well this morning, and then my car started giving me trouble on the way in. I was worried it wouldn't make it into the garage."

"Don't worry about it," Olivia assured him, walking up from behind him. "We all have those days. Hell, I probably have more of them than anyone; I have a toddler and a seven-year-old."

"Do you mind if I have a friend of mine come into the garage and take a look at it?" he asked her. "I know it's not standard to have civilians walking into our parking garage, but it's kind of a specialty car, and not every mechanic knows how to deal with it."

"No, go ahead. Just have your friend sign in."

"Hey, look what we got!" Rollins walked into the squad room, clutching a large, thick yellow envelope. "I think this is the Sebastian file."

"Finally," Amaro said, walking up to get a look at it. "It's been a week."

"Goren, I think this is for you." Rollins handed him a single sheet of lined paper with a handwritten note.

_Bobby_

_Here are the full crime scene and autopsy reports from the Sebastian case, including pictures. I'm still pushing them to hand over the rest of the file; they're being extremely territorial, you know how they hate to share. Hope this helps in the meantime!_

_-Carolyn_

"Better than nothing, but not as good as everything," he commented, handing the note to Olivia so she could read it.

She made an audible sound of frustration. "I don't get it. I mean, I understand wanting a collar for yourself, but taking that to the extreme of withholding information that could save a life?"

Goren smiled a little sadly. "As much as we wish it were different, not all cops' motives are pure, and I'm not just talking about those who are outright dirty. They blew this case twenty-one years ago; they don't want to be showed up by the NYPD."

"Then let them put their effort into working the case," Olivia grumbled. "But instead, they just block us. Come on, give me that file. Let's see what we got."

xxxxxxxxx

"Hey, Liv!"

She turned, smiling when she saw the petite blonde woman standing near the door. "Alex. What are you doing here?"

"Helping out a friend." The Lieutenant smiled. "So, how's married life treating you?"

"I can't complain. Unless you count complaining about the old married woman jokes my squad keeps throwing at me."

Alex laughed. "Well, they'll stop. Eventually."

"How would you know?" Olivia teased. "You've never been married. Have you?" she added belatedly when Alex didn't reply.

"For three years, fifteen years ago."

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay, you couldn't have known. It's not something I talk about very much."

"What happened?" Olivia asked. "Messy divorce?"

"No." Alex smiled sadly, shaking her head. "I'm not divorced. Joe - Joe was a cop too, worked narcotics. One night he was making an undercover buy from a drug dealer who had his nervous teenage cousin with him. He moved the wrong way, and nervous teenage cousin pulled the trigger."

"Oh, God, I'm sorry," Olivia said again.

"Don't. It's okay. I don't avoid talking about it because I can't deal with it or anything like that. It just seems so far removed from my life now. So," she said, quickly changing the subject. "You and Elliot."

"It's going great. I'm almost worried we're going to crash sooner or later, we're flying so high right now. But when I really think about it, it's not like that's some constant of the universe, that unbelievably good now means it'll fall apart later. We just have to keep working at it. So, you told me at the wedding that you were thinking of contacting your former partner."

"Actually," she corrected with a smile, "I said you inspired me."

"Okay, I inspired you. So, did you? What happened?"

Before Alex could reply, the garage door creaked open, and Olivia looked over to see Bobby Goren standing there. The first thought that crossed her mind was how bizarre it was to have both of them in her field of vision. Bobby Goren was one of the biggest people she'd ever met, and probably the biggest person she'd actually worked with. Even in heels, Alex Eames barely came up past Olivia's shoulder, and she was as slender as she was short.

She looked back to Eames, intending to introduce her to their consultant, only to see that the blonde woman's eyes had lit up at the sight of him. "Hey."

He smiled. "Hey. Thanks for coming out of your way."

She smiled back. "Anytime. What's the damage on the car?"

"Lewis towed it back to his shop. He said he thinks the engine needs a new belt."

She grinned full-on now. "Guess you're stuck with me as a chauffeur for the time being, then."

It wasn't the words that struck Olivia so much as the nonverbal parts of their interaction. Despite their differences, they seemed to fall into an almost perfect sync with each other the moment they occupied the same space. It was like they breathed in harmony. "You two know each other," she said finally.

"Oh, sorry," Bobby said quickly.

Alex turned to the dark-haired woman with a smile. "You were asking about my partner from Major Case?"

"You two were partners," she realized.

"Nine years," Bobby replied. "Right up until I retired."

The unbelievable connection between them suddenly seemed to make sense to Olivia. She and Elliot had certainly grown close in their twelve years of partnership, and Elliot had been by all measures more or less a normal cop. She could tell that Bobby Goren was one of the last people who could ever be described as normal, and an abnormal cop would likely have had to struggle to fit in. She'd always been quick to defend Elliot against IAB or anyone else who seemed a threat to him; she had no doubt Alex would have defended her partner against the entire department if necessary. The closeness of a partnership would have only been heightened by the sense of being together against the world.

"Olivia's the friend I told you about," Alex was explaining. "The one whose wedding I was at."

"So your new husband is your old partner?" he asked, clearly having connected the rest of the dots on his own.

Olivia nodded. "Yep. We were partnered for almost twelve."

"Must've been a good partnership," Alex said wryly.

"I could say the same to you."

Alex shrugged, not denying Olivia's comment. "It was. This man here's the best partner I've ever had."

The big man dropped his head, staring at his shoes. Alex smiled knowingly. "Although he absolutely cannot take a compliment. C'mon, let's go home."

By some unspoken agreement, he walked around and settled himself in the passenger's seat while she slid in behind the wheel. Olivia thought she'd known couples who'd been married for years that weren't half so in sync. She smiled as she watched the car drive out.

"I guess I owe Olivia," Bobby commented as they drove out of the garage. "For bringing us back together."

"She shouldn't have had to," Alex replied softly. "I should've reached out to you on my own."

"Hey," he chided gently. "Nothing was stopping me from making the first move."

They were stopped at a light, so Alex chanced leaning over the center console to briefly kiss him. He smiled warmly. "And if I'd realized what I was missing," he admitted, "I would have."

****A little short, I know, but I wanted to get all our major players on the same page before I throw in the next major plot point. I'm really sorry this took so long, but reality kind of got in the way and I had to spend a ton of time doing non-fanfic writing, which got in the way of this and my other story. Anyway, I'm back!****

****This chapter references the CI episode ******_**Amends**_******. (I'm not going to keep tagging ******_**Blind Spot**_****** in every chapter, just know that the story in general will reference that episode a lot.)****

****Reply to anonymous review: I know that Jo's primary intent was to get Declan's attention, but what's important in this case (besides the fact that it led them to Goren) was that Gage, who knew Sebastian better than anyone, actually believed it was Sebastian. That will eventually become very, very relevant.****

****Please review.****


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